The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

The conspiracy of silence
and the missed opportunity of rehabilitation
Personal experiences in these camps were as little a topic of conversation
as were the traumatic experiences of the Second World War. That
was how it was everywhere at that time. Never during the following
forty-five years were these bloody wartime events ever dealt with – psychologically,
in the press, in parliament or in the courts. During the first
years after the victory, a few spectacular war crimes trials were held
against the Četnik
Cetnik and Ustaša leaders, but none against members of the
victorious People’s Army, which had killed thousands of defenceless prisoners
of war. Moreover, the dictators feared that a widespread prosecution
of crimes would in effect prolong the war, and that the liquidation
of former opponents after the war could weaken the reputation of the
regime. Thus, everything was sublimated which was contradictory or
problematic. After an initial phase of settling of scores, the word was:
let’s let bygones be bygones, don’t tear open old wounds, let sleeping
dogs lie. Evil had been removed, Good had triumphed.
Since the media were under the control of the party, no one stirred up
the terrible events of the past. A blanket of “fraternity and unity” was
spread out, and the memory of the heroic struggle for liberation was
propagated to entertain, educate and indoctrinate the “masses”. The
partisans, their leader Tito, and the break with Stalin became an integral
part of the new pan-Yugoslavian identity.
Silence about the mass murders had the psychological effect of a taboo
which must not be violated. The events were neither forgotten nor extinguished
from the memory of the surviving relatives. Rather, they built
up a parallel, private truth, different from the “truth” taught in the
schools. At the same time, fear and violence were part of natural human
interaction in society, and the most unquestioned component of all relations
within families. The most frequent victims were women and children.
Brutality to animals was unquestioned.
The lack of reliable information fed speculations. While in Germany,
under the pressure of the victorious powers, Nazi crimes were uncov -
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